An algebraic family of distributed space-time codes for wireless relay networks

This paper studies the design of distributed space-time codes for use in wireless relay networks. Earlier work suggested that a suitable family of codes can be obtained by using linear dispersion codes, provided the basis matrices were unitary. In this paper we construct an explicit algebraic family of such codes where full diversity is proved. The construction uses cyclotomic field theory and yields basis matrices that are indeed unitary. Simulation results show that the codes have better performance than codes designed earlier by ad hoc and random methods, and thus with less encoding complexity.